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Political stunts won’t scare vultures

Tom McEnaney

Yesterday morning I received a letter from Pepper Finance Corporation, which for years has been servicing my home mortgage with Danske Bank, confirming that my mortgage has been transferred to a vulture fund called Proteus Funding. Last October Proteus, which is owned by the American investment giants Goldman Sachs and Pimco, beat off competition from Bank of Ireland, Elliott Management, an American hedge fund and Prudential, the British insurer, to acquire the €1.8 billion tranche of performing home loans from the Danish lender.

Am I any worse off? It’s an important question, the answer to which forms the nub of a spat between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. My loan will continue to be managed by Pepper, which is fully regulated and, since the introduction…